US surfer John John Florence injured in Australian event

<p>PERTH, Australia &mdash; Two-time world surfing champion John John Florence has a knee injury which he hopes won’t prevent him from representing the United States at the Tokyo Olympics.</p>
<p>The 28-year-old Florence said Saturday he was withdrawing from the remainder of the World Surf League event at Margaret River and the follow-up one at Rottnest Island off the coast of the capital city of Perth.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, I hurt my left knee on the end section of a wave during my round-16 heat two days ago,” Florence said. “I was able to surf the rest of my heat, just kind of feeling it out, but I knew something was off.”</p>
<p>The 2016 and 2017 world champion, Florence’s 2018 and 2019 seasons were both affected by knee injuries including a ruptured ACL in June 2019 in Brazil.</p>
<p>The Hawaiian doesn’t believe his injury is as serious this time and still hopes to compete in Tokyo in late July where surfing is making its Olympic Games debut.</p>
<p>“It’s not the same knee I dealt with last year so that’s good, but with the Olympics coming up this summer I’m going to focus on healing up and getting strong,” he said.</p>
<p>If Florence is unable to compete at the Olympics, his place would be taken by the next eligible American surfer, 11-time world champion Kelly Slater.</p>
<p>Florence, the two-time defending champion at Margaret River, had reached the quarterfinals before his withdrawal and is currently ranked No. 3 in the world.</p>
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<p>Olympics: <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games">https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Sports">https://twitter.com/AP_Sports</a></p>